Here's what cheezed me off today

SInce we're all ranting here, I'd like to dish out some... I'm on Taxol right now and my taste buds are driving me crazy!!!! Can't eat anything, everything tastes horrible AND on top of that,., can't have my morning coffee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! People don't understand I'm upset about something like that!! They don't get that I go to sleep at night dreaming of that cup of coffee... It's what I live for,,, And it's the only thing that brightens my day & makes me smile to myself !!! What makes life bearable. It tastes awful now... makes me want to cry (((( And what makes matters even worse, is that when I found out I had cancer... I never felt bad... I laughed it out and tried to look on the bright side.. "Hey !! People with cancer get to be skinny"!! But oh boy, I was in for a treat... I'm gaining weight like crazy... from all the steroids & hormones, I heard!!! This breaks my heart, cause I'm originally a vertical sleeve patient... had my surgery 2 yrs ago and lost loads of weight.. Life was great, I was enjoying the new me, until I found out about my cancer.... You know. I didn't care about the lumpectomy. didn't feel sad about my mastectomy.... Almost lost my life when started AC but turned out ok.... BUT what is really getting to me, pissing me off and making me shake my fists to the heavens.... My weight gain & my COFFEE!!!!

Dera, I was like that on Taxotere. It got to the point that the only coffee I could tolerate was iced coffees. I also gained weight from the steroids, had to wait until after my bmx to start trying to lose the weight.

the coffee hound

Had lumpectomy 2/6. My BS office manager pisses me off, and makes me so emotional. Very cold, almost sterile. I've only seen her 3 times, first time I left without paying my co-pay. She called me, and I said when I came for pre-op I would pay, which I did. Brought wrong CC, but ended up paying properly. Think she made me nervous. Then this morning I did the follow-up call, she asked for drainage info and seemed mad I didn't measure in ml. Said I have to convert these numbers and call you back. Well the tears started, and of course then I had all the comeback answers. Not a passive person, as I am an elementary school principal, and know half the battles are solved through positive communication. Should I mention to her or BS when I have appointment?

I never have had that problem with my BS or her staff. They are great and very caring.

Fm, sorry to hear you are having that problem with yours.

rohanna - sorry to hear about your mom. Hang in there!

dera - that stinks about your coffee troubles! This is a great place to vent about everything!

fmm - here's hoping that when you go in tomorrow she will be more pleasant! You deserve to be pampered and treated extra nice right now! Hope you are healing well and your appointment tomorrow is good!

Sunny and 75 degrees here... oops, I'm not suppose to brag. Either way, I have had so many things that cheeze me in the past week that i can't even begin to write them. Maybe that's the price I pay for my lovely weather :-).

Dera 104, I know your pain when you talked about your coffee. I started drinking Ensure instead of my coffee. I understand that's absolutely no help. I am only here to sympathize. My taste buds were off all through A/C and taxol. I just finished taxol a week ago but my taste buds have not returned yet. This inconvenience made me cry more than anything. Hang in there! In a year's time we won't even be thinking about any of this anymore.

Hugs,

rockym - hope your neighbor issues have gotten better!

I am really cheezed off today...I really dropped the ball and have not kept up well enough with health insurance junk. I went to get some physical therapy for my right shoulder since it has been hurting so I figured I should get it evaluated. I should have called the insurance company on my own to get details, but I relied on the very vague answers the receptionist gave to my questions. She didn't have all my info handy because she had been out the day before, but I gathered from our talk the initial appointment would be more expensive (like $250-$300) and then the subsequent ones were supposed to be less and I was expecting around $80-$90. Well, got my EOB's from UHC and the first appt was billed at around $650 and the second one around $350 with me being responsible for $192 each time that would be applied to my deductible. I know it's my fault since I just decided to trust her vague answers, but, I still had to call to let them know I was very surprised at the bills. I was told they don't handle the billing and don't know how much the hospital will decide to charge. What the heck is it these days with places charging different amounts depending on what kind of insurance someone has or whether or not they are self paying???? But wait...it gets even crazier...I mentioned something about the self-pay thing since that had been mentioned to me at the beginning when I was asking about the cost since I wanted to have a ballpark figure in case insurance didn't cover it. She said if I wanted to switch to self pay it would be $60. WHAT???? Are you kidding me???? The same services that they billed insurance around $350 for and require me to pay them $192 to be applied to my deductible would only cost $60 if it didn't go through insurance??? I'm sorry, but this is such a racket I can't stand it. Similar thing happened with my genetic testing - I was told it would cost $2,500 and I would be responsible for $100. Well, it was billed at over $10,000!!! I was charged $200 and was told that they would re-send a new bill for only $100, but they never did so I just paid the $200 to be done with it, but that wasn't really the issue, it was the ridiculous cost of the testing. I'm certain the same thing is going to happen with my prosthetics I got in December. Still no EOB on them so when I called insurance about the other stuff I asked her a few questions and it sounds like the company told me some wrong things about that, too...or rather incomplete info. They assured me they had a contract with UHC that they billed through Multi-Plan and it would be in network, but UHC told me it would be out of network. They also did the same thing and said they couldn't give me an exact price since it depended on who the insurance company was as to how much they billed. So much frustration and I didn't even have half the treatments other people have had to endure. I can't even imagine how difficult it must be for others and it must be even more difficult for those without health insurance. I feel blessed to have it, I just wish the providers would give accurate info in writing when they are asked how much something will cost. ARGH!!! Ok, rant over...for now.

You'd think I would be used to it by now, but I just keep thinking of all the mastectomy-friendly clothes I could buy with that money and it cheezes me off!!